Hey, Greylock Nation, today is Tuesday, October 23, and you’re listening to TLC episode #67. I’m your host, Jason Velázquez, and, as always, thanks so much for tuning in. On this week’s show, we explore the topic of the Registry of Deeds.

Deborah Moran, right, and Maria Ziemba, both staff members at the Northern Berkshire Registry of Deeds, vie for the top spot of Register Nov. 6; photos courtesy the candidates.

Unless you’re a real estate agent or a tax assessor, this government office is often overlooked until two neighbors have a property line dispute. And, although much of the focus on the elections next month centers around more high profile local or Congressional seats, the top position of Register of the Deeds is up for grabs every six years. Here in Greylock Nation, Berkshire County is divided up into North, Middle, and South Registries, each with their own staffs and head Registers.

Hey, Greylock Nation, today is Thursday, August 30, and you’re listening to TLC episode #66. I’m your host, Jason Velázquez, and, as always, thanks so much for tuning in. We’ll be talking about bodies, minds, books, and the Blues this show, and hearing some great tunes besides.

SOooo good to be back behind the mic. I won’t get all TL;DR here, since the show itself is an hour and a quarter (I got carried away in my enthusiasm…). I do want to provide you with the promised links to Hay Day, Rise for Climate, and Hemp—An Amazing Plant, though, so do read on.

Welcome, Greylock Nation, to episode #63 of the Top Left Corner here at the Greylock Glass. We’ll hear more from Carrisa later in the show, and if you behave, I’ll even treat you to one of her recent poems she was kind enough to record and share with us.

A no-foolin’-around sized force of City of Albany and New York State Capitol police was on hand at the June 4 Poor People’s Campaign event. Some twenty-seven arrests were made for trespassing and disturbing the peace; photo by Jason Velázquez.

We have a pretty sizable show for you this week. Guests include candidate for Lt. Governor, Quentin Palfrey, Poetess Carissa Sacherski, author Chris Wondoloski, organizer of the first ever Northeast Fiddlers’ Convention Jim Wright, AND special coverage of the June 4 Poor People’s Campaign rally and action in Albany, including speaking with North County activists Sam Smith and Reverend Mark Longhurst, Poor People’s Campaign- NY organizer Barbara Smith, and Vocal-NY staff member G.G. Morgan. Keep Reading

Today is Tuesday, January 16, 2018, and you’re listening to episode 62 of the Top Left Corner. I’m your host, Jay Velazquez, and, as always, I thank you for tuning in.

All photos by Jason Velázquez.

We’re coming up this week on the first anniversary of the Women’s March, the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, with half a million attendees showing up for the flagship event in Washington D.C., approximately 4 million participating in events around the country, and well over 5 million demonstrators world-wide.

Although I haven’t talked much about it, I was fortunate, more than fortunate actually, to attend the Women’s March on Washington. At the last minute Meghan Whilden, Executive Director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College, contacted me to let me know about an empty seat on one of several busses heading to the Capitol from Western Massachusetts. She wanted to send me down as one of the Berkshires’ own journalists on location at one of the most profound and powerful experiences on American soil of the 21st Century. My bus left from Northampton, Mass about 1:30 a.m. packed primarily with women from the Pioneer Valley, but also a good share of Berkshire residents. The buses leaving out of Pittsfield had all left earlier the evening before.

Our bus arrived and parked in the lot of a stadium outside of the Capitol, and, keeping close to my Berkshires contingent, I made my way toward the National Mall, interviewing people along the way. Long before I saw the columns of the Supreme Court or any of the monuments, I knew that I’d been captured by history and marked in a way that would be almost painful for its permanence.

I reported via Facebook LIVE video and through live audio broadcasts using the Mixlr Internet radio service. I posted photos and text updates until first the cellular service in D.C. got completely clogged, or intentionally disabled—we never found out— and then eventually my phone’s battery ran dry, and I had no way to charge it without finding my way through a rolling pink sea of determination.

On the trip back to Western Mass, I tried to piece together some way to tell a story that was weightier and more expansive than I’d ever been tasked to convey. Harder still was knowing what to do with the strange distance I felt between myself as a man and a reporter at the scene and the women who were returning as victorious participants. There were so many women who’d attended not just the March on Washington, but also the sister events in the Berkshires and beyond, who had their stories and experiences to share as women with other women. Who was I to show up at their campfire and ask to be passed the talking stick? And with such really excellent coverage by so many distinguished national journalists, I couldn’t see what contribution I might make.

I spent a good amount of time on both the way down and the way back talking with Emily Cutts, staff writer for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. I meant to ask her what it felt like to be a female journalist covering the story, and whether she felt she needed to try to keep a level of professional detachment from the events. I don’t know how any reporter, man or woman, could have kept their heart behind a fence, to be honest.

But I never got to ask her. The bus stopped moving about 40 minutes south of Northampton and wouldn’t budge again. In a flurry of calls to family and frenzied tapping on Uber, the women and men who shared such powerful solidarity for the last 24 hours made their separate ways out into the pre-dawn darkness and frost. My lot, and that of my traveling companion, was looking more and more dire as Uber drivers started running out, and I couldn’t get my phone to install the damn app anyway. In an act of selflessness and generosity, charity really at that hour of the morning, my newly met colleague gave up her seat so that we could make it back to Northampton. She ended up waiting over an hour in the cold until a friend was able to get there and shuttle her back to Paradise City. Thank you. Thank you again, Emily Cutts. Your strength, exhibited through kindness and self-sacrifice was so…feminine.

It didn’t take me long, sitting starting at the empty white screen of my computer, to realize that what Megan Whilden had done, intended or not, was not to dispatch me to the nation’s capitol to go get that story, but to send me there so that the devastating 24-hour transformation I underwent would inform my decisions on what topics I would cover and how I would cover them from that point on. If it seemed to you that the reporting coming out of the Greylock Glass was steeped in estrogen in 2017, well now you know why.

I looked for stories not just about women in the Berkshires, but about how those women, through their own work and lives, reflected the growing realization that America was about to reckon with a women’s movement that was gaining in power, momentum, and political sophistication. The country would begin to come to terms with gender inequities and injustice not because it was convenient at the moment, but because women had decided they were done with gradualism.

The Greylock Glass reported on many, many women achieving amazing things in education, literature, music, politics, and other areas. When searching for a source to talk to about a subject that wasn’t inherently masculine or feminine, I challenged myself to be sure to contact a woman with equal expertise or credentials if no reason existed not to feature a feminine voice. Finally, just as important to me as including women’s voices in our reporting was committing to give time to stories about issues that may have a veneer of gender neutrality, but which, in fact, affect women disproportionately, and often with strikingly unjust consequences.

What did I learn pursuing this slight editorial tweaking in 2017 was that including women more often in news coverage, as vital actors on the many diverse stages of human experience, as agents of their own fortunes and as agents of change in their communities? I learned that it’s really no professional challenge. It’s just a personal habit. Plenty of men made appearances in our podcasts and in our pages last year, too—when it made sense, in the interest of the informing the audience, to talk with them. But never as the default gender. And while I haven’t analyzed stories and podcasts from 2015 or 2016 to see if last year rectified a gender disparity of which I wasn’t aware, I don’t think I have to at this point. And I don’t think I’m going to have to make any special effort in 2018 to ensure journalistic gender equity. If, as I hope, I’m in a position to hire a reporter this year, I’ll be looking forward to nurturing the habits of awareness in her or in him that took root for me, and for the world, during the first Women’s March on January 21, 2017.

Although I never did come up with a satisfactory way to chronicle my trip to Washington, I did return home with a couple hours-worth of audio interviews. I’ve sifted through those conversations and pulled out a small collection of my favorite quotes. Except for the voice of Kamala Harris at the end, the speakers are going to remain nameless, though some of you will, doubtless, recognize one or two of the women I spoke with. So now, I’d like to share with you, as a small way the Greylock Glass can commemorate that historic demonstration, Ten Minutes of Voices on the Road to the Women’s March on Washington.

Generosity
is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which
I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it
away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives.”
— Jean-Paul Sartre

A ground nesting native bird, the bobolink. Find out more from Jonah Keane of Mass Audubon on the Cornbread Cafe. Yeah it’s a music show, but it’ll all make sense, trust me; photo courtesy Mass Audubon.

A ground
nesting native bird, the bobolink. Find out more from Jonah Keane of
Mass Audubon on the Cornbread Cafe. Yeah it’s a music show, but it’ll
all make sense, trust me. Photo courtesy Mass Audubon.

Congratulations to Al Timpane! He scored two tickets to Misty Blues Sept. 28 at Jiminy Peak with his Zen-like #CureForTheBlues that boils down to “Change My Mind.” Why do I always forget that method?

Wazzup, Greylock Nation—

Have you ever gotten a piece of good news that was so great, you felt kind of swoony every time you thought about it, even the next day? We just did. Actually, two pieces.

If you read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Columbia Journalism Review, or many other titles, by now you’ve probably heard about the Civil Media Company. Civil is the journalism start-up with a mission to restore credibility to the news, circumvent censorship by authoritarian regimes, and create a clear path to financial sustainability for fledgling news organizations or outlets decimated by declining ad revenues and subscriptions.

Powered by blockchain technology and crypto economics, Civil has already launched a small constellation of Civil Newsrooms—independent news outlets that pledge to adhere to stringent standards of ethical journalism. By doing so, these newsrooms will gain access to many of the resources that a well-funded, well-organized media company like Civil can provide.

Vivian Schiller, former CEO at National Public Radio, was named CEO of the Civil Foundation, the nonprofit created to oversee the platform and promote its standards of journalism, earlier this summer. This month, after an editorial review process, the foundation selected a small handful of local news organizations from across the journalism sector internationally to include in the second group of official Civil Newsrooms.

The Greylock Glass — yourGreylock Glass — has been accepted into this collection of news agencies. Additionally, we have been awarded a grant of 2,000 CVL tokens to pay, in part, for our “stake” on the platform.

I just learned this by e-mail less than 48 hours ago, and I’m still trying to absorb what this all means. I am humbled at Civil’s confidence in our work. I feel a strong sense of validation in the vision of the Greylock Glass—though, if I needed excessive external validation to keep this project going, I don’t know that we’d still be having this conversation ; ) . Mostly, I’m in a state of shock and disbelief that our reporting will join that of journalists from publications like The New Yorker, LA Times, BBC, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Gawker, and DNAinfo in this exciting evolution in journalism.

Among the initial organizations participating in this network are the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), the European Journalism Centre, the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism, University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the News Co/Lab at Arizona State University. The Associated Press is on board as a major supporter and is creating a process by which Civil Newsrooms can license its content through special arrangement.

I really encourage you to read more about Civil, especially in this article at the NYT and this piece in the WSJ. You’ll understand why I’m still reeling (in a good way) from the acceptance letter I received. Longform in the CJRhere.

The other piece of great news I received is in the same vein, but more about our ability to reach a broader audience. The Greylock Glass has been accepted as an Apple News Publisher. If you’re not on an iOS device, you have no reason to know what that means, but if you have an iPhone or iPad, you’ve probably checked out the Apple News app. Again, I had to submit an application, which initiated an editorial review process for the Glass to be considered.

So many people are getting their news via their phones these days, I thought it was worth a shot, so I threw my hat in the ring and waited. I’d just about given up, too, but last month, I received notification from Apple that I could begin publishing on that platform, which I’ve been doing quietly for a couple of weeks. I’ve been working some of the kinks out and am now pleased to announce that, if your device can run Apple News, you can add the Greylock Glass to your list of favorites.

One of the side benefits that the Berkshires will enjoy is that Apple News is a major way audiences the world over can find out about the amazing people, organizations, and events in the Berkshires that we report on every week in the Glass. In other words, Apple News will signal boost information about our local businesses, arts, food, etc., to a global audience of potential visitors to the region. Get it? So while you’re on Apple News, be sure to hit that share button and spread some Berkshires love with the rest of the planet.

Our local focus is the main reason that the Glass was accepted as a Civil Newsroom. That focus needs to be intensified. I am now actively looking for part-time staff writers to report on North County stories that aren’t being covered elsewhere in ways that show how powerful, relevant, or consequential the issues are to the real people involved. An obvious result of this change is that you’re going to see much more text-based journalism on the site in addition to our podcasts.

A core tenet of Civil is that editorial independence is best maintained when news consumers pay for the journalism they enjoy. Of course, the Greylock Glass has NEVER installed data-harvesting, web-tracking ad systems, nor have we resorted to partnering with sleazy companies that place “recommended articles” in the sidebar or at the bottom of the page with click-bait headlines (which also typically harvest your data and track your every move online). We have only ever accepted static ads from local companies and organizations with whom we are proud to be associated. Still, as more and more people use ad-blockers, the writing on the wall regarding the future of this journalism revenue model becomes increasingly clear. And that will probably be a good thing in the end. The Press can never be truly “free and independent” if it always has to worry about offending the advertisers.

So, now that you’ve heard this spate of good news, tell me: aren’t you proud that the Berkshires is home to one of very few local news outlets to be accepted into this second wave of Civil Newsrooms?! That an outfit you’ve been following since its days as a scrappy startup is in the vanguard of technological innovation that will democratize journalism more than any other development in recent memory? Okay…we’re still a scrappy startup, but not. for. long.

Although I will continue to host some of the podcasts, and will do as much writing as I can, my role will necessarily pivot to more closely resemble that of a traditional publisher at the same time I seek to add a much wider diversity of voices to our pages and podcasts. The role of the publisher, as those of you who’ve been in the news biz know, is to make sure the organization is financially solvent and can weather any economic, political, or social storm.

To that end, I will be unabashedly soliciting support from all corners, starting with this newsletter. As the rabid promoter of YOUR local news alternative, I’m going to make P. T. Barnum look timid by comparison. And I’m not going to stop until the Greylock Glass is the media powerhouse this region deserves.

I promised, when I started this thing, that I’d build it up into a news organization that told local stories in a way that no one else could match and that I’d create jobs. I took care of the first goal, with over three hundred podcast episodes and articles published in three years. It’s time for you to help me make the second objective a reality, too.

In the past, I’ve asked you to contribute $1 a month to show your support for the Glass. If that’s really all you can dig out of your couch cushions, we’ll still take it, but that’s not going to get us where we need to go. The Berkshires, particularly North County, has the chance RIGHT NOW to go from being a region that’s suffered a severe decline in news coverage to being a model of remarkable, community-driven journalistic wealth and ingenuity. We have the chance, together, to show the WORLD how it’s done.

I’m not going to compare your contribution to “the price of a cup of coffee” ever again. That actually cheapens your involvement in the critical democratic institution that a free press is. I want you to care about your news more than that. I want you to really pause for a minute and just ponder the resources it must have taken to achieve what the Glass already has to date. I’m not asking for tips, donations, or gifts. I’m telling you that a window of opportunity has opened that can dramatically improve the news scene around here, but that YOU have to invest in that future.

The way to do that is to become a member. Right now. Like, I don’t even care if you finish reading this newsletter if you’re already on board with this plan. If you come on at the $10 per month level, will you get $10 worth of news right out of the gate? Depends on how you value supporting your local news. The Greylock Glass can’t create the amount of content you get from Netflix for the same money, but then again, Netflix has 120 million subscribers…which, now that I think about it, shows what’s possible when everybody ponies up a little individually.

So I’m putting $10 per month out there as the standard membership level. Some of you will choose the $5 level and others will choose the $25 level. I’m hoping that one or a few of you will kick in at the $100 level. Ideally, I want every single one of you to become a member at some level. When you read the articles or listen to the shows, I want you to know that you made them possible. I want you to take pride in it.

The results, when your dollars start flowing in, will be transformative, immediate, and visible. For starters, you’ll start seeing other people’s bylines on articles and shows. That would be nice, wouldn’t it? People have implied (rather bitingly, at times, I must say…) that I must love to hear myself talk. I don’t actually. But that’s not the point. This has never been about Jason. The Greylock Glass has only ever been about creating a sustainable media company that wasn’t dependent on shifty ad revenue or on the whims and generosity of millionaires. I knew that it’d be a steep uphill climb for awhile. It’s tested my resolve, strained my resources, and threatened my sanity just a little bit since I started out on this journey.

Last year around this time, our news delivery model was so unique that the trade group Local Independent Online News Publishers paid me to speak at their annual conference in Chicago to give other online newspapers an idea of how to incorporate podcasts into their offerings (I’m still grateful to those of you who contributed to my airfare then. You rock.) Since then, another local news podcast site is getting off the ground in the Pacific Northwest, covering the Tacoma area. Fully two years after the Greylock Glass launched in 2015, the New York Times started its local news podcast.

In the last two years, major newspapers across the country have fallen prey to corporate parasites. A national television network was revealed to have forced journalists across the country to read identical editorial statements on air as if they were their own. Journalists here at home have been identified as the “enemy of the people,” and have been murdered and jailed at increasing rates abroad. How do you fight back against these alarming trends? You strengthen the independent press in your own neighborhood to protect your oasis of news freedom.

Right now, the Greylock Glass is poised to enter a phase of unprecedented growth. We’ve been building toward this for three and a half years. With your help, we can propel this online newsthing into the success that will prove the local news is still the most important tool for holding the powerful accountable, reflecting the lives of residents, and helping its audience engage in the community in meaningful ways.

Let’s make history together. Become a member right now.

You can become a member on the websitehttps://www.greylockglass.com/membership-account/membership-levels/

You can become a member through Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/greylockglass

Or you can send a lump sum via PayPal (requires PayPal account)https://www.paypal.me/greylockglass

However you choose to contribute, I thank you for deciding to become a real partner in this thrilling new chapter of the Berkshires’ mightiest independent alternative media thing.

Immerse yourself in beautiful and delicious handcrafted gifts at the 2017 FESTIVE! A new holiday market at Greylock WORKS celebrating the unique magic of the Northern Berkshires.

Set in an expansive, light-filled mill, the festival marketplace offers music performances, food crafters, local farmers, fermenters and distillers, and the region’s best artisans and textile curators.

Come to discover all your holiday gifts and wants, and stay for programs and workshops that invite visitors into the true stories of our artisans.

Advertisement

How to get there

Greylock WORKS is located at 508 State Road in North Adams, along Route 2.

Their newly renovated Weave Shed is located within a 240,000 sf textile mill currently undergoing an exciting restoration. They are a scenic 1 hour drive from the Albany and Hudson train stations, 30 mins North of Pittsfield in Massachusetts and 30 mins South of Bennington in Vermont.

TIME & TICKETS

Saturday November 18th, 2017

10:30 am to 5:30 pm

Advance tickets can be purchased in blocks of 4 Adults for $20 at THIS EVENTBRITE LINK. Children under 12, accompanied by an adult, may join FESTIVE for free.

Transgender Day of Remembrance is an international annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.

Additionally, during the week of November 13-20, individuals and organizations around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week to help raise the visibility of transgender and gender non-conforming people and address the issues these communities face.

Observance at Park Square, Pittsfield

Thursday, November 16, 5:30 p.m.

Here in the Berkshires, MC and Featured Speaker Jahaira DeAlto, Reading of Transgender Day of Remembrance city proclamation by City Council President Peter Marchetti, Speech by Joseph Farnes of St. Stephen’s, Reading of US Names followed by Contemplative Silence, Speakers: Tegan Joy Cook, Ray Garnett, Kenneth Mercure, B Bradburd, Open Mic for Attendee Participation, Candlelit Procession (LED candles provided) to Park Square ending with Standing Vigil in Park Square with Reading of International Names followed by a return to the church with Reflection Time with Cookies and Beverages.

Jahaira DeAlto; submitted photo.

St. Stephen’s is handicap accessible, with the elevator available from the Allen Street Entrance. For those who are unable to attend we are making our best effort to livestream and/or record the event. We are also asking that our speakers try to provide written copies of their speeches, poems etc. so they may be shared online for those without access to transportation or who are unable to attend.

Jahaira DeAlto is an advocate and activist whose work began in 1997.

Notably, she has spoken at the Chanelle Pickett murder trial, the Ryan White Conference on HIV/AIDS, and Harvard University. Most recently, she was a guest-lecturer at Columbia University’s School of Social Work. Affirming and uplifting Trans/Intersex People of Color is her passion. She is a college student in Pittsfield, MA, and she can also be found vlogging her heart out at www.youtube.com/JahairasMission

Shaker Meets Southern with Virginia Willis

Top Left Tunes

This episode features “Hot Chicken,” off Dom Flemons‘ release, Prospect Hill. We interviewed this Grammy Award winning artist on a recent episode of the Cornbread Cafe, our American Roots music show. Check out the artist’s website, find out more about him, and maybe even pick up a CD or download while you’re there. Tell him Jay sent you.

🎶

Text from submitted release

HANCOCK, Mass.—The Chicago Tribune praised Georgia-born, French-trained, chef Virginia Willis as “one of the seven food writers you need to know,” and on Saturday, November 4, 2017, you’ll get the chance over dinner at Hancock Shaker Village when Shaker meets Southern. Willis, Editor-at-Large for Southern Living, is considered a leading authority on southern cuisine, its origins, and evolutionary future, and she’ll talk about Kentucky and Ohio Shaker foodways. There’s much more to southern cooking than we’ve been lead to believe, and she’ll show us the way. The perception may be BBQ and bacon, but in fact, thanks to a 12-month growing season, produce plays a large role in their regional foodways.

Virginia Willis; submitted photo.

As a child, making biscuits – the same recipe she uses today – with her grandmother was the beginning of a culinary adventure which includes articles in national publications like Southern Living, Eating Well, and Fine Cooking, a food blog (named a favorite by Saveur), five books, and a James Beard Foundation Award of Excellence. Willis has been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, Serious Eats, and Tasting Table and quoted in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She has worked behind the camera for Martha Stewart and in front of the camera with Bobby Flay.

Currently, Willis is developing with WGBH a series called Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover’s Tour of the Global South to air nationally on public television in 2018.

“Food is central to Hancock Shaker Village,” said president & CEO Jennifer Trainer Thompson. “We have 5 acres of heirloom gardens that we tend – just as the Shakers did two hundred years ago. When we say field-to-table, we’re talking maybe a hundred feet from the onion being pulled to the kitchen door. Virginia is an authority on Southern foods, and teaming up with Brian in the kitchen promises to be a culinary souffle. We can’t think of a better way to wrap up our series for the season than to return to our roots: nourishment.”

Willis, who champions social justice and sustainable sourcing, teams up with Hancock Shaker Village regional farm-to-table chef Brian Alberg to reimagine Southern cuisine on a New England farm and create a memorable neighborhood sourced meal highlighting heirloom produce from the Hancock Shaker Village gardens. The communal dinner will be served by candlelight in the beautiful historic 1830s Brick Dwelling dining room and includes wine and a copy of her latest cookbook, Lighten Up Y’all.

Shaker Meets Southern

Food for Thought: Dinner with Virginia Willis is the final 2017 dinner in a series at Hancock Shaker Village of today’s most compelling authors talking about wide-ranging subjects of relevance today. Far ahead of their time, the Shakers addressed gender equality, sustainability, land renewal, racial equality, pacifism, and shared economies decades before fashionable, let alone there being a vocabulary to address such subjects. Hancock Shaker Village’s Food for Thought invites today’s best thinkers to address topics of importance to our community and world.

About Virginia Willis

Chef Virginia Willis is the author of Lighten Up, Y’all, Bon Appétit, Y’all, and Basic to Brilliant, Y’all, as well as Okra: A Savor the South Cookbook and Grits by Short Stack Editions. Lighten Up, Y’all: Classic Southern Recipes Made Healthy and Wholesome received a 2016 James Beard Foundation Award of Excellence in the Focus on Health category and was a finalist for Best American cookbook by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She is currently in development with WGBH for a series called Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover’s Tour of the Global South to air nationally on public television stations.

She is an Editor-at-Large for Southern Living writes a popular on seasonal ingredients called “Cooking with Virginia.” The Chicago Tribune praised her as one of “Seven Food Writers You Need to Know.” A popular Southern chef, her legion of fans love her knack for giving classic French cooking a down-home feel and reimagining Southern recipes en Français. Her eponymous food blog, tagged as a favorite blog by Saveur magazine, receives rave reviews for her recipes and stories celebrating her Southern heritage and classic French training. Her articles have appeared nationally including Southern Living, Food52, CNN, All Recipes, Country Living, Eating Well, Family Fun, and Fine Cooking. As a nationally recognized Southern food and beverage authority she has been featured in the Washington Post and USA Today, Serious Eats, and Tasting Table and quoted in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Virginia is the former TV kitchen director for Martha Stewart Living, Bobby Flay, and Nathalie Dupree. She was the producer of Epicurious on the Discover Channel and Home Plate for Turner Studios. In front of the camera, Virginia has appeared on Food Network’s Chopped, Fox Family and Friends, Martha Stewart Living, Paula Deen’s Best Dishes, and as a judge on Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Her culinary consulting company, Virginia Willis Culinary Enterprises, Inc specializes in recipe development, content creation, culinary editorial services, culinary video production, spokesperson representation, and media training.

She is a member of The James Beard Foundation, Chef’s Collaborative, Les Dames d’Escoffier, Georgia Organics, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and the Southern Foodways Alliance. She participates in Chef’s Move to Schools and is also part of the No Kid Hungry Blogger Program for Share our Strength. Virginia is on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Blue Ribbon Task Force. As an Atlanta chef, she is proud to be on the Atlanta Community Food Bank Advisory Board as well as the Atlanta Community Farmer’s Market Advisory Board.

About Hancock Village

Home to the Shakers for more than 220 years, Hancock Shaker Village is now an outdoor history museum dedicated to preserving the Shaker legacy and making that story relevant and illuminating for today’s visitors. Situated on 750 acres of picturesque farm, field, and woodland in the bucolic Berkshires of Massachusetts, the Village consists of 20 historic buildings, a working farm and heirloom gardens, and a premier collection of 22,000 authentic Shaker artifacts.

Today is Sunday, October 15, 2017, and you’re listening to episode 58 of the Top Left Corner. I’m your host, Jay Velazquez, and, as always, I thank you for tuning in.

We spoke this week with Dr. James Birge, President of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams. The posting of the newly created executive level position of Chief Diversity Officer caught our eye, so we thought finding out a little bit about what went into the decision to create the position would be illuminating.

We also caught up with Elinor Goodwin, owner of the Print Shop, Williamstown, who is now comfortably settled into her new digs on Spring Street. The Print Shop has long been the go-to source for all the printed items that this digital media startup, The Greylock Glass, needs on a regular basis. And there’s a reason for that, which we’ll hear about on this first edition of the resurrected segment, the Berkshire Business Files here on the Top Left Corner.

Berkshire Business Files: The Print Shop

The Print Shop Williamstown, a full-service print shop and marketing agency, is located in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. We work with organizations of all sizes: service professionals, banks, schools, teams, administration, parents, booster organizations and coaches to provide attractive materials within what are often limited budgets. We enjoy working with our clients from developing marketing concepts, to design, through to the printed publication. We also assist organizations with advertising campaigns—soliciting, designing, and placement of advertising.

Chief Diversity Officer

Locations: North Adams, MA
Posted: Sep 27, ’17
Type: Full-time

About Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts:

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) is a dynamic and vibrant four-year public college located in the beautiful Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts. Founded in 1894, MCLA is the Commonwealth’s public liberal arts college of the Massachusetts State University System. MCLA was named a Top Ten Public Liberal Arts College by U.S. News and World Report. MCLA is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC), a national consortium positioned at the forefront of the conversation on the value of a liberal arts education. MCLA also earned a place on Kiplinger’s Personal Finance’s list of 100 Best Values in Public Colleges. The ranking cites colleges that combine outstanding academics with affordable cost, and the College was again named to the President’s Honor Roll for Service by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Job Description:

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) invites applications for Chief Diversity Officer (CDO). We are the designated public, liberal arts college among the nine State Universities of Massachusetts and one of 29 Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) in the country. We seek to be an exemplar of diversity, equity, and inclusion by creating an environment where anyone can excel in their learning, teaching, and work.

The CDO will be a thought leader and action driver in extending and deepening our diverse and inclusive MCLA community. The CDO will work with academic, administrative, and student leadership to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are valued and reflected in all areas of the college, and will help build and maintain bridges to our community and region in regard to shared commitments to inclusion and equity for all. The CDO will be a member of the College’s Executive Staff and report directly to the President.

General Duties and Responsibilities:

Work with faculty, executive and administrative staff, and students to direct, implement, and oversee institutional planning on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that positively impact student and employee experiences at MCLA.

Translate and implement best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in higher education at MCLA.

Work with President to develop departmental budget that enhances the size and function of the Chief Diversity Officer’s office and provides resources for programming, meetings, professional development, and travel.

Identify and help to ameliorate the conditions/policies/practices at all levels of institutional life that impede the development of an inclusive climate in order to achieve the college’s mission.

Work with academic and faculty leadership to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into the curriculum and faculty teaching methods.

In collaboration with others, develop comprehensive diversity and inclusion training and education programs for faculty, staff, administration, and students that improve how we interact with one another, that value diversity and inclusion in decision-making, and that create a welcome environment for students and employees regardless of background.

Collaborate with Human Resources Office, faculty, staff, administration, and students to review, revise, and work toward the goals of the College’s Diversity Statement, including, but not limited to, hiring a diverse workforce that is reflective of the student population.

Support and contribute to the efforts of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force to implement new and/or revised policies and programming that contribute to a healthy campus climate and to cultivate a broader institutional dialogue on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Work with existing staff and policies at the College to help respond to matters regarding incidents of bias and/or to establish a system that provides just approaches and remedies to bias at MCLA.

Effectively communicate with internal and external populations on matters regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion and advise others on strategies to improve communications.
Represent MCLA at public meetings and serve on external Boards that enhance campus/community partnerships.
Work with other campus offices to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in their function (i.e. human resources, admissions, institutional advancement).
Collaborate with designated faculty members on diversity initiative matters.
Supervise student workers/interns and ad hoc project staff.

Requirements:

Earned doctorate or other terminal degree strongly preferred
Six to ten years of diversity and inclusion-related work in higher education
College teaching experience highly desired
Significant experience facilitating group dialogue in a higher education environment or other setting
Demonstrated experience with analyzing a complex environment for strategic intervention
Strong interpersonal skills to establish effective relationships with campus colleagues, students, diverse constituents, and local community members
Excellent writing, communications, and organizational skills
Demonstrated experience working with and training students and colleagues on matters related to race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, and other identities
Demonstrated ability to maintain confidentiality

Additionally, the MCLA community has identified the following desired characteristics in a Chief Diversity Officer: Someone who is action-oriented while rooted in theory and reflection; one who values collaboration and communication; one who respects diverse thoughts, solutions, and opinions; a thought leader capable of hearing others’ ideas and capable of sharing her/his/their own ideas and thoughts; a leader who values transparency; a leader committed to the ideals of social justice.

Additional Information:

This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, position.

The deadline for applications is October 16, 2017.

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination and affirmative action in its educational programs, activities and employment practices. The college complies with all federal, state, and local laws and regulations advancing equal employment. Applicants who will enrich the diversity of the campus community are strongly encouraged to apply. Visit www.mcla.edu.

Application Instructions:

Interested candidates must apply electronically and should submit a letter of interest and resume by clicking the “Apply Now” button at the bottom of the job description page found HERE (Submission period ends 10/16/17).

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